In order to be competitive in today’s market, companies and individuals need to develop and hone an outstanding digital marketing strategy. Sometimes, however, this is easier said than done. Too many marketers miss important markers like engagement and lead generation and fall, instead, into an unproductive gray area in which money is being spent on digital marketing but the digital marketing strategy isn’t producing the desired results.
Fortunately, there’s a way out. By bringing these five tactics into your company, you can foster a better digital marketing strategy in the coming year. Here’s what you need to know:
Five Ways to Create a Better Digital Marketing Strategy in 2016 and Beyond
- Get mobile
By now, everyone has heard that 2015 was the year that mobile search surpassed desktop. With this in mind, it’s obvious that fostering a healthy digital marketing strategy in 2016 involves much more than just creating an outstanding website. While it’s still incredibly important to develop a website that performs beautifully on desktop, it’s arguably more important to develop a site that performs seamlessly on all mobile platforms. This is due to the fact that upwards of 78% of consumers research products online and that same percentage of consumers use their mobile devices to check email on a regular basis.
In light of this, it’s incredibly important to alter your company’s online marketing materials to perform well on a mobile platform. A site that is truly mobile-friendly should possess the following traits:
- All content on your site should work seamlessly on all browsers and on all devices, from desktops to tablets
- All pieces of the site (pop-ups, etc.) should function seamlessly across all devices
- Any JavaScript that is present on the site should function well and be unobtrusive to the user
- The site should be fully scalable on any browser or device the user happens to be using
These things do more than just create a functional site on a technical level – they also provide a positive user experience, which is one of the most important things marketers today can do to improve their digital marketing strategies and generate more leads.
- Focus on inbound
While the town criers have been proclaiming the death of outbound marketing tactics for years now, some companies still insist on using intrusive advertisements that do nothing but annoy and alienate customers. As it stands today, 84% of consumers between the age of 25-34 have left a website due to intrusive advertising. This is a statistic worth sitting up and paying attention to because Millennials (generally defined as consumers between the ages of 18-34) currently make up ¼ of the U.S. population and wield an annual spending power of more than $200 billion.
With that in mind, it’s clear that any company who wants to succeed in today’s environment needs to appeal to Millennials and, more and more, Millennials have made it clear that they don’t appreciate intrusive advertising. To add to that, a whopping 200 million Americans are listed on the national “Do Not Call” list and the number of people using adblocking software has skyrocketed in recent years.
All of this goes to show that consumers are pulling away more and more aggressively from advertising that they haven’t actively elected to be exposed to. This means that, as we move into the New Year, the importance of inbound marketing tactics like content creation and social media engagement will rise.
- Think twice before you develop an app
With all the focus that mobile is getting in today’s marketing environment, it’s only natural that many marketers are considering adding the development of an app to their digital marketing strategy. According to many experts, however, this might be an unneeded step. Research shows that today’s consumer is already overwhelmed by the sheer number and availability of apps and that, more likely than not, one more on their phone’s home screen isn’t going to earn your company that much more engagement. Instead, it may just be wiser to focus on developing a website that features responsive design for mobile platforms.
In addition to this, brands should be seeking to produce the maximum amount of engagement possible on pre-existing social media sites such as Twitter, Periscope, Instagram, and Facebook (64% of Millennials have stated that they’re more likely to purchase from a brand that maintains a presence on social media). Since customers are already engaging on a regular basis on these platforms, upping your brand’s participation in them can have a major effect on traffic and lead generation.
- Step up your tech
If you’re going to succeed at online marketing, it’s important to have a great grasp on the digital aspect of it. This means giving the technology you’re using a quick assessment to check for any weak spots or places in need of improvements or upgrades. Here’s what you should have in order to support and facilitate a great digital marketing strategy:
- A content management system (CMS). Examples include WordPress, Concrete5, and Sitecore.
- A marketing automation platform. Marketing automation platforms help make your digital marketing strategy more effective and easily measurable. Examples include Marketo and Hubspot.
- A social media automation platform. These incredible platforms allow you to post, schedule, monitor, and track several different social media platforms all from one dashboard. Examples include Hootsuite and Sprout Social.
- A CRM platform. CRM stands for “Customer relationship management” and is software that assists marketers with everything from content creation to customer support. Examples include Accelo and Salesforce.
If you don’t have a few of these things, it’s easy to put them in place. Doing this allows you to reach your objectives more efficiently and track your outcomes more accurately.
- Optimize, optimize, optimize
If you don’t have SEO, you don’t have anything. Because of this, it’s important to spend a significant portion of your digital marketing budget and energy on SEO optimization. This means ensuring that all of your content includes relevant keywords, user- and search-engine-friendly HTML, and a URL structure that’s easy to spell, decipher and remember. There are plenty of fantastic sources for SEO tools and information on the web, but many companies find it helpful to hire an SEO expert as their business begins to grow. Doing this can help you ensure your digital marketing is on point and that you’re not missing anything important.
Conclusion
Digital marketing is an expansive discipline, but these five tricks can help you build and maintain your best digital marketing strategy yet. To learn more about how you can take your digital marketing and SEO to the next level, contact Strider SEO today!